Sebastopol, CA--Ask anyone at any company with more than fifty employees
what their most critical computer application is, and most will say
"email" without hesitation. Among the messaging systems critical to
businesses today, Microsoft's popular Exchange software has come a long
way since its introduction in 1996. Yet, according to the company, sixty
percent of the seats or workstations that use the software still depend on
Exchange 5.5, the version released in 1997, despite the availability of
Exchange 2000 and, more recently, Exchange Server 2003.

"The release of Windows Server 2003 addresses the majority of the
underlying issues with Active Directory that kept many companies from
upgrading sooner," comments author Paul Robichaux, a longtime Exchange
consultant and author of columns and books on the subject, including
Exchange Server Cookbook (O'Reilly, US $44.95). "Exchange Server 2003 is
making huge inroads in the Exchange 5.5 installed base, and much of what's
in this book is stuff that experienced 5.5 administrators need to know."

Coauthored by Devin Ganger and Missy Koslosky, this cookbook offers
Windows network administrators a comprehensive how-to guide to the most
common tasks for both Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server
2003--everything from installation and maintenance to configuration and
optimization--along with details on the most useful tools and utilities,
and solutions to uncommon tasks and advanced procedures. As with other
O'Reilly cookbooks, the recipes in Exchange Server Cookbook are
immediate and practical solutions to specific problems and tasks,
organized by subject so that administrators can quickly find what they
need.

"Exchange is a rich messaging system, but there are lots of hidden tricks
and features that not everyone knows," Robichaux explains. Microsoft has
gone to great lengths to hide much of Exchange's complexity by providing a
set of GUI tools and wizards, he says, but for those who want to make
better use of features and capabilities that lie beneath the GUI veneer,
the cookbook's recipes also provide command line options and working
script examples for automating management and deployment tasks.

"Our book is designed to give readers more than one way to complete a
task," Koslosky explains. "Scripting for Exchange isn't widespread, and
most books on Exchange don't cover scripting at all. We hope the book will
help administrators get used to it, so, as they become more comfortable,
they will enhance the scripts we provide in the book."

"The cookbook format provides a unique opportunity for learning new ways
to do familiar tasks," Ganger remarks. "Most Exchange administrators don't
have the luxury of time to research new approaches and they can benefit
from a thorough set of task-oriented recipes that show them how. This is
the book I could have used when I first started learning Exchange."

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